To ask how you calculate your teenagers pocket money and what does it cover

[MatildeHidalgo]

DD is 15 in January and wants a monthly "allowance" instead of us just putting money into her account as and when.

She's in Yr 10 and obviously we'll continue to fund her bloody expensive sport and compeitions and phone contract, school uniform, shoes and coat.

What does your teen's pocket money cover? Are they expected to save from it?

TIA

My son is 13 and since Sept has been getting £70 per month. This is broken down into £20 spending money (to include hair products, going out with friends, games etc) and £50 shoes/clothes. I don’t know yet if this will be enough so we will keep track and increase if necessary. I am aware he is growing!

I buy his pe kit, phone contract and xbox live/game pass and EA game pass. I also pay for anything educational i.e. an online coding course and will pay for a gym membership or class if he takes one up. His school have no uniform.

I imagine more spending money would be appropriate for a 15 yo..

My y10 gets £15 / month for discretionary spending including PAYG phone.

She is only just at the point where she is confident enough for independent socialising so it may go up soon.

It doesn't cover clothes, essential toiletries or anything like that. She hates shopping anyway, if she had a 'designer' habit we'd have to do things differently.

I don't have teenagers yet but when I was 12, i got £120 a month which went up to £180 a month when I was 15. But I had to buy everything myself. So fun money, my phone, toiletries, clothes, school uniform, savings, birthday presents etc. I was always given a wee bit extra in July for help with uniform.
This was 20 years ago but I will do the same with my kids, adjusted for inflation. It worked really well for me; learning to budget and save for future events etc.

My 16yo dd gets £60 a month. We buy school uniform, normal clothes, pay her phone bill, and supply lunch ingredients.
She has to pay bus fare if she's going out, lunch at school if she can't be bothered to make lunch, extra, non essential clothes, toiletries if the ones I buy aren't "posh" enough. She also has to pay for half of her weekends/weeks away with the army cadets (weekends are £10, weeks very from free to £70 for a fortnight).
She also gets £30/week ema, and has a part time job, so she's got more spending money than me!

Mine get £25 a month which they barely spend

Mine get an allowance but it’s just for spending on fun bits and pieces. They don’t save as such but don’t always spend it so it sits in their accounts.

We pay for all clothes, toiletries, school travel and lunches as they are still in education.

I couldn't afford pocket money when my son was a teenager he got a half day Saturday job and earned a fair bit of money.

Wow! These amounts really surprise me. I'm 33 now but I don't really recall getting pocket money when I was younger and if I did, it was only a small amount. Once I was old enough, I did babysitting jobs and then got a part time weekend job once I was 16 to fund myself.

If your children aren't of an age where they can work, I'd be incorporating a sliding scale of chores whereby they can earn money for doing more around the house. I think it's important children learn the importance of money.

Ds(15) gets £100 into his account a month. We pay for his clothes and afterschool activities etc. He gets ps4 access etc at xmas. He pays for :

School Lunches =around £45/month
GiffGaff phone = £10
that leaves around £45/month for whatever he wants, usually it is spent out with friends (buses, mcds, cinema etc). Occasionally PS4 points or Netflix for a month.

the money is meant for socialising so i dont expect him to save anything, just budget within his means. ant money he gets for xmas/birthday are also put in that same account and he had been good at not wittering it away and keeping for a bigger purchase.

My parents gave me money as and when. Meaning some months I probably had more than £150 and others I only had £20
They paid my phone bill (which at the time was only £10) and bought my toiletries and clothes when I needed them. Gave me £20 for whatever I wanted to spend it on when going into town with friends or £40 if I was going to a restaurant and film with them
As I reached 14? I think I got £10 a month so I had something in my account to spend if I wanted but still same rules applied as in if I needed money I needed to ask which was a fine way to play it

Have a DD11 and been thinking of starting a allowance with her so also interested in seeing others ideas as she currently gets £7 a week pocket money and I cover everything for her

15yo gets £100 pcm to cover toiletries, san pro, underwear tights socks, stationery, socializing, presents, coffees and snacks etc when out and unnecessary clothes/upgrades to what I will buy. We pay her phone and her oyster card, buy school uniform and basic wardrobe. Packed lunch items are available - if she cba to make her lunch she pays for the lunch at school unless she is staying for a late activity like a concert or match or if it is freezing and I want her to have a hot meal. Can also make a bit of money from babysitting and music practice supervision etc.

Older DC is away at school so gets £150 pcm to cover everything that isn't provided by school including buying own music etc (hence why gets more - and also very rarely gets the chance to babysit etc).

We keep a vague eye on their accounts and sit them down and go through statements etc.

Thanks for replies. Lulualla you got £180 a month 20 years ago?!

DD is expected to do jobs around the house because she's a member of the family - not in exchange for cash.

I don't expect her to get a part time job til she's finished 'A' levels as evenings/weekends are taken up with sport.

Yes, but my parents didn't buy me anything. I had to pay for my own stuff (except food at home of course and family meals out).
And I was expected to save.

I had a job from when I turned 16 too, so I was able to save up quite a bit for when I left uni.

Interesting to read this. We've said pocket money starts when they start secondary school which will be next Sept for dd.

We're thinking of paying for a phone contract £7.50 - £10 per month & cover all extra-curricular activities, school uniform & basic clothes etc.

Tempted to start at £10 - £15 per month & see how it goes.

Currently they all earn money for things that are a challenge for them. DS7 hates reading so earns 5p per page (has made a huge difference!) DS9 was having trouble breaking a habit of biting his nails so every Sunday if there was some nail to cut he'd get 10p for each one (it worked!) Etc etc.

I would look at your whole family budget. Work out what you currently spend on them for things that you'd expect the allowance to cover - non-school clothes and shoes, toiletries, presents bought for others, fun stuff. AND work out what you spend for yourself/DP on those kind of things. I don't think it's appropriate for teenagers to have more ready cash to spend on themselves than the adults in the family.

Based on that, work out a sensible amount and be very clear that there are no top ups. She has to budget properly and if she runs out, she runs out until the next month's allowance is paid.

Poor ds(17). His allowance only recently doubled from £20 a month to £40. He's very hard done to compared to many on here. We also pay for his phone though

Mine are adults now but they got £80 a month paid into their account.
I paid phone and travel and any school related stuff.
They paid for cinema, trips in to town ect.
If they spent it all in a week, I never gave more.
They are very good at budgeting now

My 17 yo DSs get 40 a month for savings and 40 for non school clothes and fun stuff. We pay for school uniform, coats, all food/lunches, phone contracts, books. If theynwant something expensive like a game pass or trainers they'll usually ask for birthday or xmas.

We pay for their phones. I can’t really afford to give them pocket money as such but I treat them as and when. My mum puts £20 a month in their bank accounts for pocket money. They are 11 & 13.

Mine gets £45 a month but that is purely for him to spend on fun stuff. We pay for his phone contract, clothes, lunches/snacks at school, whatever he needs for hobbies/activities etc. He spends it on gaming mostly.

I started getting pocket money from being about 6/7 and got a fiver a week for helping to clean out the hamsters cage and do a few bits around the house (easy child friendly jobs). I remember being really excited every time I'd saved up enough money to buy a new Bratz/Barbie doll and dragged my parents to Woolworths to get it 😂

After starting high school I got £10 a week for doing more teenage friendly jobs around the house but my parents paid for uniform/shoes/phone contract ect. If I wanted to choose my own clothes I had to buy them myself. On special occasions just as friends birthday meals and trips out they would give me some extra money for it.

I will say however it was always made clear that it was expected of me to be getting a job as soon as I turned 16. The day after my 16th I was putting job applications out and got a part time job straight away around college, at this point my pocket money stopped and I was expected to support myself. I think this is a very good idea because now, ten years later, I have a very good work ethic and it sounds great in interviews that I started working as early as possible. Obviously my parents still helped me if I needed it, they kindly continued paying for my phone and I still got birthday and Christmas money, this just created some independence in me.
When I got to uni most of the people I met hadn't even contemplated working yet and had a regular allowance by mum and dad even though they were adults and had a large student loan.. I understand wanting your kids to focus on their studies but it's these same people I see now really struggling in a work environment because they never had to work for their money.

I give DD (15) £120 and I buy essentials.

Sometime we have a discussion about what constitutes essentials, e.g I'll buy her underwear from M&S and Nivea toiletries but if she wants hollister braletts and something fancy she's seen on insta then that's her responsibility.

I'll occasionally bung her an extra £30 if she wants to go out with friends and I'm worried she'll miss out if she had no cash.

Son 17, £10pw for himself. We pay bus fares, trains, school trips, clothes, phone contract at £10pm. Plus loads of other bits
He works at a restaurant.